Hartley Miller's Slap Shots- Friday February 15th Edition

By Hartley Miller

    Sports fans and athletes often use the term “Controlling your own destiny”. Well, this old adage certainly captures the profiles of both UNBC Timberwolves teams as they conclude their BCCAA basketball regular season Saturday in Kelowna against the UBC Okanagan Lakers. The Men T-Wolves are desperate for a victory, while the UNBC women can lose by a narrow margin, and still win.  Nevertheless, both teams “control their own destiny”.

Ladies first! UNBC is 11-4 (including a perfect 8-0 home record), trailing only Camosun (12-3). The Timberwolves will host Provincials starting Feb 28^th and want a first round bye. In order for this to happen they need to place second, as teams one and two automatically qualify for the semi-finals while team 3 meets team 6, and team 4 faces team 5. (Last year the UNBC women were eliminated by 6^th place Camosun in the 3-6 game).

The Lady T-Wolves game against Okanagan will determine 2nd and 3rd. UBC-O is 10-5, which means if they win, both teams will finish 11-5, with a split in the season series. The first tie-breaker is total points in those two games. UNBC won the opener 79-73, so if they lose by five or less it is as good as a victory.

Or is it? Coach Loralyn Murdoch isn’t approaching the game with the mind set of losing a close one, even though it creates an advantage for her team. “In all honesty if it came down to a two point game (with UNBC behind in the final few seconds) and we had the opportunity to go into overtime I would do it. Every game for itself! You don’t want to leave a bad taste in the girls mouth by throwing a game. I don’t believe in that. I have confidence in my girls”, said Murdoch.

Meanwhile, the UNBC men’s game is more critical. The Timberwolves hold down the 6th and final playoff spot with a record of 5-10. Both Capilano and Langara are 4-10 and meet each other tonight. Capilano will also host last place Kwantlen Saturday, while Langara should lose Saturday when they play at (14-0) Douglas.  The T-Wolves win the tie-breaker against Cap and lose the tie-breaker against Langara based on total points in their head to head meetings, which were split.

The odds don’t favor the UNBC men because their opponent, UBC-O, is second at 10-5, and need a victory to secure a first round bye. Furthermore, the Lakers won 85-76 in PG in their previous meeting.
A win for the Timberwolves will mean a probable playoff position. The only way they wouldn’t qualify is if Langara wins its last two games, and with one against Douglas this is highly unlikely.

However, a loss for UNBC will result in a missed playoff berth, unless Langara loses both games, and Capilano loses to last place Kwantlen. There could also be a three way tie for that last spot with point differential the determining factor (right now this favors Capilano). Simply put the T-Wolves better win, or else they can expect to watch six other teams at the Provincials on their home court. “It’s a horrible situation to be in”, admits Coach Zane Robison.

I can’t think of a bitterer pill for the local boys to swallow if they fail to qualify. “It would bother every one of our players. It would devastate us. It would frustrate me and I would be very discouraged, but we are hosting nationals next year and that will help us recruit for next year", summed up Robison.

At nationals there is a host berth. At provincials there isn’t. However, considering the UNBC men have only won one third of their games, they should be thankful that they more or less still control their own destiny.

From the quote rack:

“I never realized how brutal the Super Bowl can be. Guys hobbling around, straining their muscles, taking tons of painkillers --and that was just Tom Petty and the Heart-breakers.”CBS Late-night talk-show host Craig Ferguson.

“So on Sunday in Hawaii, the NFC beat the AFC in the Pro Bowl - a meaningless game played in beautiful weather. In other words, just like a typical Miami Dolphins home game.” Contributor Janice Hough of Palo Alto, California (www.leftcoastsportsbabe.com)

“The Poverty Olympics was held for the first time and in an upset the team from the National Lacrosse League narrowly beat out the team from the Canadian Football League.”Contributor Derek Wilken of Calgary (http://smacksport.blogspot.com/)

“A new Topps card shows Roger Clemens testifying before Congress, with Mark McGwire superimposed in the background.”Contributor Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, California

And in case you missed it:

Kris Beech of Salmon Arm was with four different NHL teams in just the month of January. He began with Columbus and also was property of Vancouver, Washington and Pittsburgh.

And how was your week?

Hartley Miller is the sports director for radio stations 94X and the Wolf@97fm. He also writes for the PG Free Press. Send along a quote, note or anecdote to hmiller@94xfm.com

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